What The Stars Are Like
by Silvertongue90
Summary: Piper and Tristan have a father/daughter night at Grampa Tom's cabin and Tristan tells Piper a Cherokee legend about the stars. One-shot


**This was shorter, but after several suggestions that I make it longer, I added more to it. The story Tristan tells Piper really is a Cherokee legend. The only changes I made to it were to put it in my own words and add a few details. This is a one-shot.**

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**What The Stars Are Like**

Tristan McLean, famous actor that many a young woman (and some older women) fell in love with and fawned over, needed a break from the Hollywood scene and he knew of only one place to go.

Back to his roots.

He had his secretary, Jane, make the proper preparations for him to take off work a couple of days and loaded himself and his daughter onto his private jet.

Piper was excited. She hardly got to spend much time with her father and enjoyed every minute alone she could get with him.

Jane was waiting at the airport to see them off. She glared at Piper as soon as she saw her. They didn't like each other much. Jane didn't like her because she considered Piper a trouble maker. Piper hated Jane because she acted like she enjoyed getting her into trouble.

"I hope you have a nice mini vacation," Jane said cordially. She shot Piper a glance that seemed to say she doubted his vacation would be nice with his daughter going along.

"Thank you, Jane," Tristan said politely. "Give yourself a little vacation too."

Jane smiled brightly. "Why thank you, Mr. McLean, but I have too much work to go over. We've got that new movie deal coming up in a few days and I have to make sure everything runs smoothly."

"You work too hard, you deserve a little time off."

Piper rolled her eyes behind her father's back. Jane saw it and her jaw tightened.

"I enjoy my work and don't need any time off," the words came out harsher than she intended and when she realized this her features smoothed. "I'll let you two board now, have fun!"

Piper excitedly boarded the plane ahead of her father.

They put their seatbelts on, but Piper took it off as soon as she could.

They made small talk, with Tristan mostly asking about Piper's new school and if she liked it. Piper lied of course and made everything sound wonderful. She even invented two friends who were supposedly her best buds.

Her father believed her, of course. He never suspected that Piper lied because she knew that is what he wanted to hear. Soon he fell asleep after telling her he had had an exhausting week.

When the plane landed, Tristan drove the car they had waiting for him to his dad's cabin. The place he'd grown up as a child.

He often told Piper he intended to sell it, but hadn't done so yet. Instead, they used it as a place to get away from the city and noise. It was already getting dark out and a few stars were appearing on the horizon.

"Let's sleep outdoors tonight," he suggested.

"Okay," Piper readily agreed.

She helped him bring out the sleeping bags and pillows and laid them on the ground. They never bothered with setting up a tent, preferring to look up at the stars. They ate sandwiches wrapped in gold paper, which Piper detested with all her heart because it ruined the moment that they were a normal father and daughter camping out for the weekend.

I mean, who had a well paid chef make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their daughter? It was ridiculous.

They lay down after they finished eating.

Piper sighed happily.

She hadn't been this content in a long time. She breathed in the cool desert air and could feel her lungs expand, then hold in the chilly air. She gazed up at the stars and was awed by their numbers and beauty. In the city she considered herself lucky if she saw three or four stars, out here she could see the Big Dipper and the Milky Way, as well as a few other constellations.

Piper glanced at her dad, who lay on the ground next to her, hands under his head. He too gazed at the stars in wonder. As if feeling her eyes on him, he turned his head and smiled. ""Beautiful, eh, Pipes?"

Piper smiled and nodded. "Yes, very beautiful."

"Have I ever told you the old Cherokee legend about the stars your Grandpa Tom used to tell me?"

She shook her head and relaxed, eager to hear another story. Tristan gathered his thoughts, then began in a deep story telling voice that only Indians could do.

"_Some say the stars are balls of light, others believe them to be human at one time, but our people say they are creatures covered in luminous fur._

_One night, on a night much like this, a hunting party camped in the mountains in hopes that game would be better there than in the valley where they lived. _

_In the distance, they noticed two bright lights, like stars, moving along a ridge. They wondered at the strange lights and watched 'til they were gone. The next night they saw the bright lights yet again, moving along the ridge and satisfied their curiosity by going to the ridge to find the lights the next morning. _

_What they found were two very large and strange creatures that they had never seen before. Their round bodies were covered with fine dark fur. When a breeze blew, sparks shot out of the thick fur._

_The hunters carried these strange creatures back to their camp and kept them there for several days. They noticed these creatures shone like stars every night, but in the morning their fur dulled and did not glow._

_By the seventh night, the hunters were ready to go home and laid themselves down to sleep one more night in the mountain, when the creatures glowed brighter than ever before and rose up from the ground. Higher they flew, until they were higher than the trees. The hunters sat watching in awe. Soon, two new points of lights could be seen in the sky and the hunters knew then that those creatures were stars._

_When they left the mountains for their homes, they told their families about the stars. The story is passed down from parent to child that way we may not forget what the stars really are."_

There was a silence between Piper and her dad. Piper mulled the story over. It was a beautiful tale, but is it true? "Do you believe the story is real, Dad?"

Tristan glanced over at his daughter, then turned to look at the stars again. "Your Grandpa Tom believed it," he laughed softly. "It's just a story, Pipes, a legend." He turned his head to look at her again. "Humans feel the need to make up stories like that in order to explain the universe around them. They need a reason to live, something to hold onto that will explain to them how everything works."

Piper frowned in thought. "If you don't believe in the stories, what do you hold onto? What is your reason for living?"

Tristan smiled and reached over to touch her cheek. "You're my reason for living, Pipes. You are what holds me to this earth."

Piper grinned. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Pipes."

Father and daughter returned their gaze to the stars.

Piper wondered where her mother was at this moment and if she were thinking about them right now. Did she believe in the Cherokee legends? A cool breeze touched Piper's face and she imagined it was her mother's fingers caressing her. For a second, she thought she could hear her mother's voice being carried in the wind. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.

Unknown to either of them, a slim figure in a satiny pink dress, watched them and smiled. She had Aeolus send a gentle breeze over her beloved daughter as that was the only way she could touch her right now. "Someday, my little Piper," she whispered into the breeze. "Someday we will meet face to face, but not now. First you must face some hardships. In the end, everything will be all right."


End file.
